I CAME TO THE U.S.
IN SEARCH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM AND ENDED UP SEEKING AMERICAN JUSTICE. NONE OF
THESE DREAMS WERE FULFILLED. THE CORRUPTION I LIVED IN HOUSE 18 STAYED IN MY
BLOGS, A SUITCASE, AND A COURT ORDER TO MOVE ON JULY 8, 2022. May
6, 2022
ON APRIL 14, 2022, I FELT BLESSED, I WAS FINALLY ABLE TO
SPEAK TO A JUDGE, AND I HAVE A NEW COURT DAY ON MAY 6. I WAS OFFERED A DEFENSE
ATTORNEY. THIS IS MY INTRODUCTION TO THEM: “MY LIFE IN WRITING BECAUSE I CAN'T
LIVE IT”. April 17, 2022
I apologize for being too expressive in presenting my case for your consideration. I want to introduce myself to you so that you know who the person asking for help is.
My name is Clemencia Garzon, I am a 67-year-old woman. On 1979 I came to New York City with a huge desire to live the AMERICAN DREAM. I emigrated from Colombia South America with the hope of expanding knowledge of my professional life. I was working in dactyloscopy for the Government of Colombia in the National Registry of Civil Status in Bogotá identifying people through fingerprints. I left everything behind and went through hell and beyond to make my home in the United States. I've spent my whole life working hard to keep this dream and the last years struggling to not let it fall apart. All the vicissitudes I experienced are in a book that I wrote and called BEFORE AND AFTER THE BORDER (ANTES Y DESPUÉS DEL SUEÑO AMERICANO)-
I am proudly a citizen of the United States and believe in the Constitution that protects the rights of liberty and justice of its citizens. In 1987 I became an employee of United Jersey Bank, and then merged with Fleet Bank, Summit Bank and today is known as BANK OF AMERICA. For 21 years I performed exceptionally accruing various awards, merits, recognitions, bonuses, coaching new employees, and certifications throughout the years. I was medically discriminated by the bank, and this led to an unfair dismissal. The bank's lawyers left me on the street demanding justice and selling the story I wrote: “FOUR YEARS OF A LIVING HELL AT BANK OF AMERICA”.
Today April 14,
2022, when I was leaving my room, I found by my door a court notice that today I
have a virtual conference. The tenant 2 caregiver seemed was waiting in the
bathroom for me to pick it up.
Today April 14,
2022, when I was leaving my room, I found by my door a court notice that today I
have a virtual conference. The tenant 2 caregiver seemed was waiting in the
bathroom for me to pick it up. April 14, 2022
April 11,2022
I keep fighting for justice! today I could only see the judge, but he didn't listen to me. My former landlady brought no evidence of her claim and disguised her corruption before a mediator. My case was rescheduled for May 2, 2022.
Here are 4 pages and 232 images. 96 from the harassment I lived with my former landlady Rosa Catano and 136 from the men she left in the apartment to continue it. 60 from tenants 1, 48 from tenant 2 and 28 from tenants 3.
CIVIL COURT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
SMALL CLAIMS
PART, BRONX COUNTY
851 Grand
Concourse
Bronx, New York 10451
ROSA CATANO vs CLEMENCIA GARZON
Index No. SC-000966-21/BX
My name is Clemencia Garzón, I am a 66-year-old woman asking for justice in a housing case where I have been begging for help. My former landlady, Ms. Rosa Catano, has filed a lawsuit against me for $9,600.00 in Small Claims Civil Court. I have not received copies of the evidence that support her claim. On March 21, 2021, after 6 months since she left the apartment, she handed me a letter indicating that on April 11, 2022, I have a bench trial. Ms. Catano has already sued me in a Housing Court to execute my eviction for a room she rented to me on October 17, 2019, when she got a new apartment for her and her son. Although her ex-husband was not going to live with her, he signed the apartment lease. Ms. Catano's purpose was to rent rooms so as not to pay her rent.
Ms. Catano moved out of the apartment on September 22, 2021, without giving me a notice. She rented 2 rooms and the living room to African American men, marijuana smokers. I still don't know how many there are, nor can I recognize them. This is a small apartment without ventilation and the toxic environment that Ms. Catano has subjected me to, has deteriorated my health. On February 28, 2022, I called 311 due to the effects produced by marijuana smoke, case #EC-00421185 for secondhand smoke - In residence. Unfortunately, these men are assigned by Ms. Catano to harass me with the smoke, and they do it daily. The bathroom has a small window, and these men close it despite my efforts to keep it open. I've asked everyone not to close it so that the bad smell comes out, but no one cares that I breathe in the smoke of marijuana.
On 17 October 2019 the super of the building at 2666 Grand Concourse Apt 3 H Bronx 10468 brought me to his friend Rosa Catano to rent a room. She had remodeled the apartment so that two cousins Clara, Ivan and I would pay her rent. She converted the living room into two bedrooms, one for herself and the other for her 13-year-old son. The fire escape ladder was blocked, the apartment was left dark and without ventilation.
On November 16, 2019, I was sexually assaulted in my room by Ivan. The next day I informed Mrs. Catano of her cousin's action and although she believed me, she did nothing. I went to the police station, and they suggested that I go to court and file a complaint. I went to the Bronx Court to seek help, but my efforts to find justice were unsuccessful. They sent me to several offices, and no one could help me. At the Office of the District Attorneys Bronx County, I had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Grace Phillips Assistant District for child abuse and sex crimes. Ms. Phillips kept a letter with my complaint and some pictures. The pandemic started and I lost contact with her.
In one of the visits of Mr. Raul Caba, Ms. Catano’s ex-husband to his son, I told him what Ivan did to me. Ms. Catano became enraged with me for revealing her cousin's actions and resorted to fraudulent and criminal actions to throw me out of the house and cover her cousin sexual assault. She protected him from any legal action because of his undocumented emigrant status. However, on January 31, 2020, she confronted Ivan with me and admitted that he had attacked me sexually. Ivan's sexual harassment continued. He walked through my door half-naked just with a towel covering his intimate parts and sometimes it was about to fall down. He waited for the moment I was alone in the kitchen washing my dishes to approach me and push me into the sink. His shorts were almost in the middle of his buttocks, and he didn’t wear underpants.
On February 25,2020, Ms. Catano and her cousin Clara Senra knocked on my door. Ms. Catano wanted to know my full name to fill out a document saying that the court had given her to file a lawsuit against me. Ms. Catano complained that her 13-year-old son was afraid because I was going to kill him and her. Clara threatened to hit me.
Mr. Caba didn’t believe
his son had those feelings; I have been generous to the kid. He told me Ms.
Catano was using her son as an excuse to throw me out the house. The mental
manipulation and the hate that Ms. Catano has put to his son toward me, began
to take effect on August 17, 2020. I was in the kitchen, and he
lifted a flashlight and pointed the light at me in a clear act of hatred and
threat. When I met this kid, he broke my heart seeing the miserable life he was
having with an unfit mother.
On February 29, 2020, Ms. Catano began using letters and people stating they were coming from the court to harass me with eviction, even though I had paid the month and had no rent in arrears. Although this day we made an agreement that I would wait for the court date and vacate the room with a judge's order, she continued harassing me. A woman came to my door and handed me a letter of eviction signed by Ms. Catano who said it was given by a judge and was a court order to vacate the room. This letter has letterhead from Blumberg's law products office. On March 20, 2020, Ms. Catano used a man to hand me the same letter. I was verbally attacked by her.
On August 24,
2020, Ms. Catano brought a sofa to block the exit to the apartment and
the kitchen, leaving less than a foot to pass. Walking in the dark I tripped
over the couch breaking a glass jug with water and hurt my knee. Ms.
Catano chose to stay in her room talking on the phone instead of helping me. I
was in bed for a week in a lot of pain, I didn’t go to the hospital, my medical
insurance expired, also to avoid the Covid-19.
The family used the smoke detector alarm to harass me, they burned food to trigger the smoke alarm. The noise, the smoke, walking in the dark and knowing that there was no way to escape terrified me. The fire escape ladder was blocked with a wall and door with a key. August 28, 2020, I was in bed with my knee in pain due to the sofa’s fall Ms. Catano triggered the fire alarm. I had to run out of my room amid the darkness and smoke and as soon as she saw me screamed at me saying: We’re burning! we’re burning! Ms. Catano removed the lamp from the ceiling leaving the hallway dark and without a way to have a light bulb. Triggering the smoke alarm became a habit and I reported it to the police. September 8, 2020, at 4 p.m. someone abruptly knocked on my door twice shouting at me that it was from the Bronx Civil Court. An unfriendly woman with an unpleasant attitude gave me an eviction letter saying that I will be notified when it will be court day. September 13, 2020, I found on the floor next to my door a card with an unused postage stamp to pretend that this was mailed to me. The note says the same as the eviction letter.
On October 1, 2020, The Fire Department removed the wall and the door that were blocking the access to the fire escape window. The coexistence became worse, we had police’s visits. Ms. Catano had to use shower curtains in the living room to continue having a room for her and her son. The cousins moved out without me noticing. On July 2, 2021, I had a fight with Mrs. Catano called the police. She would lock me out with the chain of the apartment’s door to control my exits. Today I told her to stop traumatizing her son by having him behind shower curtains, as he is afraid that I will kill him. Next day she moved him to the room that her cousin Clara used to have. Even in this room he remained locked up and with less contact with his parents. The father stayed behind the curtains watching TV and the mother used this space to stalk me.
On August 10, 2021, in a strange way a man named Martin appeared by my room in the middle of the darkness. He informed me that he is Ms. Catano's brother and would move into Ivan’s room which is next to mine. Ms. Catano has no brothers in the US, according to her she left her country using her ex-husband to obtain a residence in the United States. The supposed brother never moved in. On August 22, 2021, African American men began moving into the room. They made calls out loud using loudspeakers so I could hear them inform Martin about the move. They speak English and Mrs. Catano speaks only Spanish, however she escorted them when they were on the phone near my door. Their things were brought in garbage bags and had a strong musty smell, it looked like they had come from a basement. This was a rainy night due to Hurricane Henry and their belongings looked dry the same as they did. The room is still stinky and there is always someone inside, most of the time they have the light off and are careful to prevent no one from seeing it. The man who always speaks loudly when hears me coming out of my room, still doing it. I can hear him screaming, cursing, laughing just to call my attention. Due to that room being beside mine, the marijuana smoke and odors come directly to my room. There is a teenager who lives with them that always catches my attention. He walks through my door half-naked/ in underpants marking his intimate part and showing the protuberance of his nipples. On September 15, 2021, two NYPD officers came to my room and were informed of the situation that Ms. Catano had put me through.
On January 22, 2022, he was recording me with his cellular after I took a shower and was leaving the bathroom. This tenant only cares about enjoying his loud music to scream with the loud sound produced by the speakers. He doesn't care about the noises and the stinky marijuana that comes out under the curtains. This year started receiving assistance from the New York City Social Services. A domestic worker comes to the apartment to prepare his meals, clean his room and the area where he moves.
September 22, 2021, Ms. Rosa Catano moved out of the apartment without giving me any notice although she told me that was taking the benefit of the eviction moratorium. She maintained a lot of cunning to hide her intentions to leave me alone with unknown men. On the same day of her moving, new tenants were renting her room. On December 3, 2021, the tenant's girlfriend put spray on my face when she showed me how she eliminated the smell of marijuana.
I have nowhere to live, and I don't have the income to qualify for a studio-apartment. I am waiting for the two pending lawsuits that Ms. Catano has filed against me. One she is accusing me that I am going to kill her and her son, and the other for eviction. I am looking forward to the day my case is heard by a judge or jury to have justice. Thank you for your attention to my case.
Clemencia Garzon Date:
April 11, 2022
